Friday, December 20, 2013

Happy Holidays!

I take a week or
so off -- completely -- from blogging each year around this time. Due to my
daughter coming down with a stomach bug yesterday, I'll be starting that break
a day early this year. She'll be missing daycare today, and that throws just
enough of a monkeywrench into my plans that I'll have to burn writing time to
catch up.

I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. I
also would like to take this opportunity to thank my readers for stopping by: You have made blogging much more rewarding than I expected it to be over the years.

This is my last post until after Christmas, and
perhaps the last of the year. After one last check for comments and
blog-related email on Saturday, I'll unplug from blogging until the third of
January at the latest.

"A compromise can never be made over a deal
breaker." -- Michael Hurd, in "Compromise in Marriage" at The
Delaware Coast Press

My Two
Cents

I can't think of a better way to make the point that
Binswanger makes -- that "Marxism ... is merely a secularized form of religion"
-- than by his nice, item-by-item contrast of the two with capitalism (and then
connecting that with the pursuit of happiness).

Reaching around to the back of the Christmas tree is a hassle.
I've knocked ornaments off several times, much to my wife's
chagrin, and even forgotten to turn the thing off at night. The solution is
automation, and the easiest way to get started is with the Belkin WeMo
switch. It's a Wi-Fi capable switch that plugs into a wall socket and
lets you turn anything plugged into it from almost anywhere. After
some easy initial setup, grab the free WeMo app for your iPhone or Android
phone and you're all set. Give it a tap, and the tree is on. Tap again
and it's off. You can keep using it when the holidays are over, of
course, for things like televisions, lights, and so on. Plus, you can create
schedules with the free apps that will turn devices on and off for
you.

Our small, artificial tree is on top of a baby grand piano, with its wiring
tucked away, out of reach, behind several hard-to-move objects. Turning the
lights on and off is a big hassle, and a traditional timer would still be a
pain to override. That's the beauty of having the remote capability offered by
wireless.